In it for the money

This is a discussion on In it for the money within the A Brief History of Cprogramming.com forums, part of the Community Boards category; I hate them. They sit on the right side of my computing class, in the corner the teacher cant see ...

In it for the money

I hate them. They sit on the right side of my computing class, in the corner the teacher cant see them in, playing games and using the internet. They shout out answers to questions the teacher asks, such as what CRT stands for. They think they're smart when they get the right answer, and they get a big cheesy on their face.

When the teacher is teaching them something though, they don't even listen. Its not that they already know how to do what hes talking about, they haven't the faintest (sp?) idea. They just think they know, or are to 'cool' to care.

They play Counterstrike multiplayer, and think they're networking gods. They know how to replace some RAM modules, and think they should be technicians. They make an Alert() in Javascript and call themselves programmers. Half of them don't even care about learning these things, they just think IT has a lot of money in it.

They're too cool to go home and spend a friday night reading software engineering books, learn C++, use UML, contribute properly to open source software. They just play these cool 3D games and think they know a lot about computers.

They plan to go to university and do IT, maybe even software engineering. They don't even know enough HTML to make a decent web page.

They're just in it for the money, and I hate them. I hate them with the passion that if they had I wouldn't hate them. If they were truely passionate about programming, about IT, about networking or web design, I would love them. If they did specialist mathematics because of a love for learning I would love them. But they don't even do maths, and all they use their computers for is downloading cracked software. And the worst thing is, I'll end up and uni and maybe even working with some of them, or people like them.

Are all fields like this, or is it just IT? Maybe the recent lower entrance rates into IT courses is a sign that they've realised the moneys not so great, and gone into something else. Hell, maybe all the outsourcings not such a bad thing - those with a real passion for IT will stay in the industry come hell or high water, and those just in it for the money will go away.

Blah! i had a nice long reply and my TV Tuner went bonkers and reset my PC :P

In my Programming course, and introductory course into C++, there are many people who obviously havn't touched their book. We are 3 weeks into the course, and teacher was walking those that needed help threw the assignment we had. I end up helping someone because i finsihed it a while back and was free. So i go over to the person to help them figure out what is wrong.
This is a person who has obvious never looked at his book yet expect that because he can play games he will be able to program. I'm sorry but three weeks into a course you should know at least enough as to what requires a Semi Colon or not. My program is for None comp Sci students, is totaly an optional coruse that you can take, so these peopel CHOSE to be there, they even had 2 weeks i nwhich to drop the course.
People like that, people who think they should be able to wing the course via lectures and not touching book, well they arn't worth the energy requires to care, so i laugh, knowing that unless they change they will fail.
The teacher is good, the book is good, the only reason they fail is beacause they wont do the work.
For one i'm with you man, Hell or High water. But not as a programmer, a Computer Engineer <hopefulyl next semester i'll be in computer sciences >
See you on MSN mate

Not all fields - Because a lot of people seem to have an aversion to hard physical labour (ie the kind of people who want to get into IT to avoid such things) you won't see people like that in jobs such as framing or masonry.

[politically correct]

BTW, I was not implying that all people in IT are trying to avoid hard physical work, just that some people factor that in when deciding a career.

like kermi said... it's not in all fields. Sure, even in some of my programming classes in college, there were slackers that had other people write the code for them, or copied off of the others. But guess what? They didn't know anything when the test came around.

Know what happens to people like that in college? They flunk. Either that or they eventually realize they can't hack it and they change their major to management. (Ever wonder why managers are morons?)

I never flunked college, but my course is left open, due to personal reasons. I loved programming with passion, and still do, used to spend all night programming and ended up turning up late to lessons in college the next morning.

I know someone who is in the computer security profession, and alot of his work colleagues haven't got a clue about computer security, they've took a comptia security + course, passed and considered a security professional by their employers

We were doing relational databases today, and the teacher told them to stop writing in access and to get out a pen and paper and plan it out thoroughly, and everyone complained! They thought they were cool gun-slingers, shooting from the hip, creating the database off the top of their heads and changing it all later. And would they listen when he told them why they should plan it? Of course not.

I guess when they do the same thing for the test and realise the documentation and planning is worth 80% of the mark, they'll listen.

In school, I got a degree in Software Development (Trade School Style mind you), you know how long they spent teaching us the process of development documentation, about 1 week. Then we finally get to use it in our final project. It should be like in business classes where you constantly have to write up biz plans, you should constantly have to write up design docs for your app. Now it is kinda of ingrained into me not too, and when I do it kinda looks halfhazard (spelling?) and cheesy. Plus whenever I am working on a work project their never seems to be time to write up design docs, just basic outlines.....

People like that are everywhere, but in my experience, they aren't the ones that truly progress.

In order to be truly good at something in a technical field you have to really enjoy what you are doing. You have to always be on top of the newest things, the upcoming technology, you must always be LEARNING. If you don't actively learn, especially on you own time, you'll get nowhere. That's where people like them will end up.

At the company I work for I'm still "just" a software tester (developer is goal for within a year). There is really only two of us that have much ambition, that are willing to learn on our own time. Both of us are relatively new to the company, less than 6 months, but we've already been told to our face that we're the best testers the company has.... sure the other people may be making the same or maybe even more money now, but we are the ones with the promising futures